Bittersweet Reunion

Family Rivalry

In the days to come, Elizabeth made good on her vow to protect her brother from the other animatronics roaming their pizzeria. Michael's days passed with much greater ease now that he had this newfound ally in the massive, metal form of his little sister.

"You doing ok in there, Mike?" she would ask every hour or so, rapping on the vents in a very specific pattern so he knew it was only her.

"Yup, doing great," he would always reply, and though he felt foolish to admit it, his heart would glow every single time she asked. He had never known what it felt like to be loved before, so for Elizabeth to always check up on him without fail was incredibly touching. It was the first time anyone ever made him feel like they would miss him if he did/his life mattered to them. Even now, a genuine smile stretched across his face as he heard Elizabeth escape back down the vents to move around the pizzeria, keeping tabs on the others.

"She's a good kid," he muttered to himself, still touched by her never-failing checkups.

Sadly, the next checkup was not quite as nice.

"Mikey? Mikey? Mikey!" Elizabeth bellowed. It was 10 minutes before her "scheduled" checkup. Uh oh.

"What? What?!" Michael was alert at once, jumping from his creaky old swivel chair to his feet. "What's wrong? What happened?!"

"It's Daddy, Michael! He's coming! And I can't stop him!" Elizabeth whispered urgently. He heard her make a whirring noise and somehow he knew it would be the equivalent of a human starting to hyperventilate in fear. "I'm sorry, Michael, but I gotta go!" she bade him a reluctant farewell and before he could speak, the vents were filled with the sound of something hurriedly scampering away.

A moment later, then, the scampering was replaced by a much steadier, firmer, harder tread.

"Father," Michael whispered and, sure enough, a few seconds later, the decaying form of a bronzed bunny stuck its horrific and mutilated face through the vents, face stretched into a permeant and twisted, toothy grin.

"I always come back," he growled, voice low and almost unrecognizable because of how raspy and rumbly it was, but even through the dissonant, discordant sound of William's voice, that telltale British accent was still there...

"Enough, Father! Stop this madness! Just let go! Give up your ghost!" Michael demanded. The withering, rotting bunny and the corpse stuck inside of it only uttered a harsh, grating laugh. Michael knew his words wouldn't have done any good anyway, but he continued to talk William down.

"You need to stop this! All this madness! If you won't come quietly, then I will finish what I've started, and you don't want that to happen!" Michael's words and tone were grim and warning, but William only continued to scorn.

"I knew it was a lie the moment I heard it, of course," he hissed. "But it is intriguing none the less. You may think you have the upper hand now, and you may even actually have it! But don't get too comfortable..." then the bunny's head slowly shrank, its body retreating back down the vent.

"Mike? Mikey? Are you ok?" a few moment later, after William's footsteps had retreated entirely, Elizabeth piped up again. Then her head stuck itself through the vent where William had been moments ago. "Oh! You're shaking," Elizabeth's voice saddened and her facial plates even twisted in what was supposed to be a look of concern.

"Don't worry, Elizabeth," Michael laughed weakly. "I'm ok," he hadn't even realized he was shaking.

"You were so brave, though, Michael," she continued, trying to cheer him up. "I certainly never had the courage to talk back to Daddy like that..."

"It was in the job description," Michael joked again, laugh a bit unhinged. He had forgotten how scary William could be, especially when compared to the other robots. It was just because he was so much smarter, he had more restraint. The other robots would kill him on sight, compelled to do so, but William could think and plan... and spare. That's what really made him scary, ironically enough. It wasn't his ability to kill that scared Michael, it was his ability to also resist that urge, just to draw out this wicked game for another night. The others wouldn't have cared, killing Michael at once, but William was not like the others. He would keep Michael alive as long as he saw fit. And that was the scariest part.